Poetry+Explication

=Poetry Explication=

[ Overview ]
To finish our study of poetry through Poetry Out Loud, you will write a poetry explication. An explication identifies the literary techniques that are used in a poem and explains how they help convey the poem's message. Read the UNC Writing Center's handout on poetry explications for more information. Your assignment, which is a slightly modified version of the traditional explication, will explain your poem's **tone**, the **characterization** of its speaker (also known as the //persona//), and **two other techniques** of your choice that we have studied in our Lit Terms lists.

Simply put, your task for this assignment is to explain how your poem works. It may help to think of your explication as answering two questions:
 * 1) What is the "truth" -- the shared human experience -- that your poem expresses? (This "truth" is what we mean when we talk about the "meaning" of a poem.)
 * 2) How does the poem express this "truth"? (In other words, what techniques does the author use?)

[ Directions ]

 * 1) Re-read your poem, paying attention to the speaker of the poem. Who is this person? What is his/her personality -- is he/she nice, mean, angry, upset, confused, intelligent, or something else entirely? Take some notes (in your interactive notebook or an OpenOffice document) that support your ideas.
 * 2) Re-read your poem, paying attention to its tone. What emotion(s) does the poem create in you, the reader? (Check the list of tone words found in the Poetry Out Loud Tone Map lesson for some ideas.) What aspects of the poem -- words, phrases, images, actions or dialogue of its character(s), or other elements -- help create this tone? Again, jot down notes that support your ideas.
 * 3) By now, you should have some idea of what you poem "means" -- that is, what message it communicates to you. Re-read your poem once more, this time looking for other literary techniques -- things like simile, metaphor, imagery, alliteration, rhyme, or hyperbole -- that help create or support this meaning. Take notes about what literary techniques you notice, as well as how those techniques work to create or enhance meaning in the poem.
 * 4) Write up your findings in an OpenOffice document. Your explication does not have to be a unified, thesis-driven essay; simply write one separate paragraph for each section of your explication (tone, characterization, and the two literary techniques of your choice). You may use headings to identify these paragraphs if you wish.
 * 5) Submit your finished explication on Engrade.

[ Requirements ]

 * Your explication must contain four paragraphs: one that discusses the poem's tone, one that discusses its characterization, and two that each discuss one literary technique of your choice.
 * Your explication must be typed using proper MLA formatting (Times New Roman 12 point font, double spaced, 1" margins).
 * Your explication should show evidence that you have developed an understanding of your poem through close, careful reading.

[ Due Date and Grading ]
The rough draft of your explication is due on **Tuesday, December 6**; the final draft is due on **Friday, December 9**. Your finished explication will be graded based on level of detail, proper explanation of literary techniques, and generally how well it shows your careful study of your poem. This assignment will count toward the Papers and Projects portion of your grade.